I wonder if they have infrared snoopers? Then they wouldn’t need flares. His answer was a sudden, searing flash, and a long, long fall into oblivion.
VI
Okatar
The darkness lifted slowly, and Vorgens gradually became aware that he was lying in a cot. There was no pain, no feeling whatsoever. He was aware that his eyes were open, but he was unable to focus them. The world was a gray blur. He tried to move, but found he could not. The effort was too great. He lapsed back into unconsciousness.
He awoke again. This time he could see. Things were still blurry, smeared at the edges, but he could see.
A girl was sitting by his cot, watching him, completely unaware that he was conscious and his eyes could function again. Her face was a curious mixture of anxiety and interest, as though she were looking into a mirror to find some flaw in herself. She was young and slim, with jetblack hair falling to her shoulders and wide, dark eyes.
Gradually, the girl’s image became indistinct, and his head began throbbing painfully. Vorgens found himself supping back into darkness again.
Then he heard voices. There were two of them, speaking a language he either did not understand or could not grasp through the ache in his head. Slowly his eyes focused on the glowing roof of the Komani bubble-tent. Vorgens found that he could turn his head slightly. He saw Sittas, deep in conversation with the Shinarian girl, who was standing now near the entrance to the tentThey were speaking something close to the Shinarian language he had been taught, Vorgens finally realized, probably an up-country dialect.